I've been testing this out for a while now, trying to make smoke work without wrecking havoc on gameplay. For that reason, this post will be subject to modification during the development of this addition.Lots of reading ahead, picture examples to come.

Smoke Screens

-The rules for launcher, rocket ammunition and grenades apply for the skill roll and delivery of smoke screens

Example: Gunner fires a smoke round from a launcher. The round travels 18" to the target. Upon impact, the 5d6 are rolled, with the total being 29. This number is now converted to studs, and with 1x(X) white plates, is put onto the battlefield, evenly dispersing width-wise from the point of impact. Since the smoke screen was fired from a launcher, it has a height of 8".

-A smoke screen, when employed, lasts until the end of the users next turn.

-The smoke screen breaks the line of sight between the warring units, allowing one side to maneuver without being accurately fired upon. While units can still travel and fire through smoke screens, the rounds will not connect unless another unit has a line of sight, or the unit has special equipment(thermal scope, X-ray vision, etc) that enables them to fire through the screen. The attacking unit would still suffer a skill penalty however, as the smoke screen still hampers the ability to shoot accurately.

Range: 6"Use: 2(Does not count for the minifigure's action)X(amount of dischargers/launchers) grenades-Xd10, 4" high-Smoke lasts until the beginning of the vehicle owner's turn-Vehicle may be moved it's maximum number of inches during the attackers turn, however, it may not use it's movement to advance on the enemy, only to relocate

-Once the smoke grenades have been launched, the launchers need to be reloaded/reset by an operator inside the vehicle-One operator can reset two smoke launchers with their action during their turn.Use: 2

Thats not bad.Back when I used to wargame with army men, we used cotton balls to represent smoke screens.The smoke grenades were given a specific turn count (10 for example). One cotton ball was added every turn.Every turn that the smoke screen lasted, a direction roll was made to determine which direction the next cotton ball would be placed in order to simulate the effects of wind or breezes; so there was no telling if the smoke screen was going to work as intended.It added an element of randomness that often messed with planning.

I'd treat smoke screens as a Field Hazard that granted Stealth to any unit inside or on the other side of it. Usual Stealth rules apply: units get a cover bonus, can become Hidden, nullified by Scouts or other units with Tracking.

stubby wrote:I'd treat smoke screens as a Field Hazard that granted Stealth to any unit inside or on the other side of it. Usual Stealth rules apply: units get a cover bonus, can become Hidden, nullified by Scouts or other units with Tracking.

Eh, instead of simply granting Stealth, I'd say it should just grant a cover bonus and MAYBE allow Stealth units to automatically hide.So things like Ninjas or T. rexes could throw down smoke bombs to disappear even if they don't have a convenient piece of cover lying around.

Gungnir wrote:I would make it an explosive that "damages" a target's next skill roll instead. Personally, I don't see why damage should only affect a target's armor.

We've already got that, it's Fire:

For minifigs, being on Fire is extremely distracting. For as long as a minifig continues to burn, he takes a -1d4 Skill and Armor Penalty, and is limited to a maximum of one attack per turn with a Short or Medium-sized weapon.